Hiding out in the open is the last place
anyone looks– smudge of charcoal
above your breast– bottleneck–
your face gone ashen, swallowing
your tongue.

3.

Colder still. The studio’s chiaroscuro.
A curse or kiss could finish you.
His paint. His smell.
His clothes piled on the chair
behind you.

4.

How does it work to be elsewhere
when you’re here?
The pose you hold indefinitely
crowds him. You can tell
by the way he steps back.

About M.J. Iuppa:

M.J.Iuppa lives on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Her most recent chapbook is As the Crows Flies (Foothills Publishing, 2008) and second full length collection, Within Reach, (Cherry Grove Collections, 2010). She is Writer-in-Residence and Director of the Arts Minor Program at St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.